514
Summary Session 1 * All of Britain gathers for the wedding of King Arthur to Guenever, the beautiful daughter of King Leodegrance of Cameliard. * Courtly gossip includes: ** The death of King Idres, and the fighting in Cornwall to fill the power vacuum. Idres' son, Prince Mark, has inherited the throne but remains weak. ** Infighting amongst the Saxons explains their quiet in the past few years. Britons see them as Saxons but amongst themselves they are various different peoples - Jutes, Danes and other such tribes. ** The child Queen Margawse conceived in 512 while she was in Logres was born a boy but then was amongst those abducted. Rumour abounds as to whom might have been involved - Arthur has ordered Merlin to investigate. ** Most of the court thinks Guenever is a fantastic pick for a marriage - young, beautiful, convent-educated, daughter of a loyal ally and inheritor to an entire kingdom. Only Merlin speaks out against it. * The cathedral at Carlion is full to bursting with attendees for the high mass of the royal wedding. * Gifts and given to the bride and groom, and also received from lords. ** Young Sir Paul requests a falcon from the royal mews, whom he names Bartholomew; ** Sir Bawynne humbly accepts what he is given, and he is given a silver armband in the shape of a dragon; ** The newly knighted Sir Talib asks that when he returns to his homeland, he may leave Britain without dishonouring his name as a knight of the realm; King Arthur affirms Talib's right to be faithful to both his liege lords. ** Tor, a bastard son of Pellinore, is knighted as a gift. Sir Gawaine and the Orkney clan look on with scowls at the rewards heaped on the slayer of their father. ** All who witness Guenever remark on her beauty - some find themselves entranced to stare at her and to hear her melodious voice. * Sir Bawynne's attempt to challenge Sir Griflet at the wedding feats is interrupted by strange happenings ** A white hart dashes into the room, followed by a single white brachet, followed by a pack of sixty black hounds, followed by a lady on horseback. The animals cause chaos in the feast hall. ** The hart is bitten by the brachet and dashes out; the brachet is grabbed by a knight who leaves in a hurry; the lady is picked up by another knight who rides in and out in armour and horseback, while the partying knights in their casual gear can only watch. ** Arthur would ignore this surreal even but Merlin counsels otherwise: "If ye wish your fellowship to be the best in the world, then your knights must be inspired to do great and unusual deeds. Here we have seen a marvel, unlike anything you will see in an ordinary court! You must send knights off on a quest to resolve these mysteries." ** Sir Gawaine, Sir Tor and Sir Pellinore are sent to bring back the hart, the brachet and the lady respectively - and to bring back the kidnapping knights of the last two, or else slay them. ** When the chaos clears, Sir Bawynne questions Sir Griflet flirting with Lady Ariette and challenges him. The two will compete to best each other's skills at the jousting tournament; whoever comes off the worst but cease all speech with Lady Ariette. * The next few days are set aside for the wedding tournament for King Arthur and Queen Guenever ** The joust is a twelve-stage knockout tournament in which thousands of knights from across the island compete. *** Sir Lamorak ejects Young Sir Paul in the first phase, but goes on to lose to Sir Hervis de Revel in the final. *** Sir Bawynne gets to the seventh round, two stages further than Sir Griflet; with the wine out their system, the two make peace with each otehr and Sir Griflet vows to let Sir Bawynne attempt to romance Lady Ariette in peace. ** The melee sees two sides fight in a massed mock battle using only rebated weapons. The knights of Logres beat the alliance of the knights from outside Logres. ** Tor and Pellinore send defeated knights to the tournament to speak of their progress in their quests, then return before the tournaments end to have great praise heaped on them. ** Gawaine's return is more grim, for in his quest he was so filled with rage while battling a knight that when the knight's love tried to intervene he struck her down and slew her. He was captured for this act but escaped when the women of the castle holding him would not see a knight hanged like a common criminal. *** Gawaine receives a verbal dressing down from Queen Guenever: "Thou livest because thou got mercy from ladies thou did not offer to one yourself." Weeping, Gawaine vows before the whole court to always help and never hinder women for the rest of his days. * As his wedding gift to his son-in-law, King Leodrance gives Arthur The Round Table - a giant table in the form of a hollow circle, able to sit 150 knights. He also gives Arthur 100 knights of quality to form the start of an order of knights directly in service to Arthur; the finest knights in Britain. ** Sir Elad, Sir Rhodri and Sir Leander are amongst those senior knights appointed to this new organisation, as well as Sir Ector, Sir Brastias, Sir Alain the king of Escavalon and Sir Cador of Cornwall ** Magical brass nameplates at each seat take the name of the appointed knight when he sits for the first time, and will show it until he dies. ** One seat is set aside for the bravest knight in Britain. This seat, the Siege Perilous, will permit no other to rest upon it. * Earl Robert of Salisbury gives leave for Bawynne, Talib and Paul to adventure. They are accompanied by Lady Ruth/ ** They ride north with the departing knights to Garloth, where Queen Elaine takes them in as guests. ** Lady Elaine treats them with hospitality and offers them assistance in their quest to claim Dolorous Garde. Session 2 * The Knights of the Lion, accompanied by Lady Ruth decide that the central keep of Dolorous Garde is probably where any threats would be found, rather than the towers at each corner of the walls. * They quietly enter the main hall, discovering three giant sleeping unnatural creatures. After a quiet discussion, Lady Ruth puts uses her magical training to hold one of the creatures, while Sir Talib glides over to one, and tries to slit its throat while it sleeps. This is not a knightly act, but then these are monstrous creatures, not bound by the laws and ken of man. * He is surprised when his sword just bounces off the creature's skin. This rouses it and the other, not bound by Ruth's will. * The three knights charge into combat. A mighty swipe from Sir Bawynne tears a chunk out of one, but Talib recognises that he does not have the strength to match that. He concentrates on making sure that the creatures cannot get to their weapons and on tripping them up to aid his colleagues. * Despite this, they are finding it difficult to cut through the creatures' tough, metallic skin, until Lady Ruth joins the melee by proxy, urging the creature under her control against its comrades. * Young Sir Paul eventually slays one, but only after Talib is badly wounded do the knights take Ruth's advice to withdraw, leaving the two creatures to fight it out. * Eventually the unbound one goes down, but Ruth doesn't relax her control over the remaining one until they are safely outside. There, Talib's waiting personal servant, Bishr, is able to deal with his wounds, with some direction from his master. Ruth urges the knights to leave now, but they refuse. Talib is too badly wounded to fight further, but Bawynne and Paul mount their horses and enter the courtyard. The remaining giant comes out and the two knights attack on horseback, eventually slaying it, but not before both of them are wounded, Bawynne more severely than Paul. * The giant weapons are taken as trophies and the group return to Queen Elaine's court. There, they present her with a sword as keepsake and ask that Lady Ruth be cared for over the winter, as her magical exertions mean that she will sleep for many weeks * Back at Court, Talib tells all who will listen of the mighty power wielded to great effect by the Ladies of the Lake. * The story of their quest and adventure are also retold, in front of the King, who is also presented with one of the giant swords. * This royal attention allows Bawynne to screw up his courage and speak to Lady Ariette, who invites him to hunt at her liege's lands over the winter. Bawynne accepts, and realises that his suit with Ariette has been successful and now he must persuade her liege, the Count.